{"id":17554,"date":"2025-07-24T03:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17554\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T03:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:16:15","slug":"macquarie-kookaburras-celebrating-the-9899-00-premierships-25-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17554\/","title":{"rendered":"Macquarie Kookaburras – Celebrating the ’98,’99 & ’00 Premierships, 25 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nearly a quarter of a century ago, organisers were franticly putting the finishing touches on venues all around Sydney, and attempting to get the trains to stay on the tracks, in readiness for what would eventually be the best Olympics ever.\u00a0 At an unrelated venue in north-western Sydney, the then Macquarie University Kookaburras were putting the finishing touches on what would eventually be a third premiership in a row in the Sydney Football Association.<\/p>\n

This week at that same venue, the Club will celebrate those flags with a special Three-Peat Premiership Reunion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kookas\u201d hadn\u2019t managed any substantial success since their inception in 1969.\u00a0 There had been some individual glory, but it wasn\u2019t until the arrival of Mick Cockerton as coach in 1998 that things changed, and changed rapidly.\u00a0 Made up of a mixture of local boys, tough-as-nails Navy recruits and ex-pats from other states, Cockerton molded his team into a premiership threat straight away.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have it all their own way though.\u00a0 Losing the second-semi final to Sydney Uni, and having to beat Manly (who\u2019d won 2 of the last 4 flags) in the prelim to get another crack at the \u201cStudents\u201d They went on to take the premiership in emphatic style by 62 points.<\/p>\n

The next season, a few players moved on, and a few moved in and like the year before, it was the long road to glory. \u00a0First, losing the qualifying final, and then defeating UNSW in the first semi-final and beating Manly again in the prelim.\u00a0 After trailing at halftime in the decider, a typically \u201cspirited\u201d speech by the coach launched the boys into action.\u00a0 The Kookas came from behind, booting 7 goals to 3 in the second half to once again prevail over the Sydney Uni.<\/p>\n

In 2000, with 11 changes to the 1999 champions, the Kookas were up against it.\u00a0 The finals were played at Sydney Uni, having previously been at Holroyd, and after losing the second semi had to go the long way for the third year running, facing off against Holroyd-Blacktown in a bruising prelim final.\u00a0 The Grand Final was close all day, with the Kookas inaccuracy keeping the Students in it.\u00a0 When the \u201chome team\u201d hit the front in the last quarter it seemed as though a combination of Sydney Uni\u2019s week off, and the Kookas tough road might just be a bit much.\u00a0 Never count out a champion though.\u00a0 Perhaps it was the omen of wearing green and gold in the home of the Olympics, or the rewards of Cockerton\u2019s tough training regime, but the Kookas got off the mat, hit the front and claimed an historic third consecutive premiership.<\/p>\n

Many of those same players, including all three of the premiership captains, Patrick Sim, Peter Conduit and Donald Ollington will come from far and wide again this week to relive and no doubt embellish their heroics at the reunion.\u00a0 Those that still have hair have gone a bit greyer and are a bit slower off the mark, but 25 years later it\u2019s proof of the permanent bond that winning one, let alone three flags can create.<\/p>\n

All that\u2019s left to do now is cheer the current crop to victory and everyone will \u201cjoin in the chorus\u201d.<\/p>\n

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1998 Macquarie University Premiership Team
\n\u00a0
\n1999 Macquarie University Premiership Team
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a02000 Macquarie University Premiership Team<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly a quarter of a century ago, organisers were franticly putting the finishing touches on venues all around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-17554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}